Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

Lackey touches down in the Fort

The most-anticipated new arrival for the 2010 Red Sox arrived in discreet fashion on Wednesday afternoon, pulling into the team’s Player Development Complex after virtually everyone had gone home for the day.

Lackey went out and played catch with Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell and then presumably dropped off some of his belongings in the clubhouse.

Thursday is the official reporting date for pitchers and catchers, followed by physicals on Friday and the first workout on Saturday. Several players took part in an informal workout on Wednesday, as has been the case the last few days. Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Tim Wakefield, Kevin Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon, Ramon Ramirez, Hideki Okajima and Daniel Bard were among those who took the field on Wednesday. Okajima was the only Sox player still on the premises when Lackey made his under-the-radar arrival.

The Red Sox signed Lackey to a five-year, $82.5 million contract in December. The right-hander had spent his entire career with the Angels before becoming a free agent after the 2009 season.

Julia, if the Lackey pick-up makes it easier for Theo to trade or release Josh Beckett, I would very much agree with you. I am also not sure if Lackey will wear out his welcome (with the fans, or with the FO) in his fourth or fifth year. I do have concerns about the Lackey signing. That said, right now, I would certainly take Lackey over Dice-K in the rotation! Hmmm!… GO SOX!

Am I the only guy here who still doesn’t hate — or to use a softer word, dissaprove — Dice-K? Sure, I think we paid too much, and he hasn’t shown loyalty to the team, and he’s had health and performance issues, but I think he could be a very valuable 15-win, sub-4.00 ERA starter for us this year (if his back soreness is in fact no big deal).

Carlos: Maybe not the only one, but it sure is getting to look that way!!.. Selfish, out for himself and his country and putting the team 2nd?? I take it that you didnt see the Globe article from last month touching ion how he kept the injury incurred in the WBC to himself rather than tell the F.O.
That really hurt the T E A M. I’m not sure if that word translates the same in Japanese and English.

Carlos I’m another one of those guys. He isn’t that bad. Players keep injuries quiet all the time, if Damon, when he was still with us played hurt, and we found out, we would talk about how much of a “gamer” he was and we’d love it.

In the beginning, Dice-K’s issues centered around him trying to be too perfect, trying to live up to his reputation and his paycheck. Can’t blame him for that. If Wakefield went to Japan and decided to pitch for the USA in the WBC we’d be happy to see him do it.

My point is that with the massive payment, we expected a lot from Dice-K, as we should, but he didn’t deliver. So, out of frustration, literally anything he does is now terrible, such as hiding an injury, which may have been because he did care about the team and the fans and wanted to go out there and try to prove himself, did anybody think of that?

I love Wake, and I have a lot of respect for him, but the fact is if Dice-K isn’t hurt, he has more potential to be a good starter, rather than being just decent and an innings eater, and the better stuff and I’d rather see him out there.

Again, can’t say we have no reasons to be extremely frustrated with the situation but I can say that people tend to be overly hostile towards the guy. He must have some loyalty to the team, just look at how hard he has worked over the last several months to try to ensure he can deliver.

Let’s just hope he, Lackey and Wake all get through spring training and this situation gets resolved and Dice-K gives us some reasons to be glad we have him, yeah?

Oh and also cross your fingers about this whole Lowell-Ortiz-lack-of-offense deal!

Torthox, one point where I will disagree with you is about Wake and the WBC. I have been on record here saying that the WBC is a bad idea. I don’t like the idea of Wake or others pitching in the WBC any more than I do Dice-K. I simply don’t see any good time for the WBC. I was wary of how Dustin and Youk would perform after the WBC for the same reason. I could go on about Lowell and Papi not participating in the WBC, also. Our baseball schedule is not set up, in my humble peon’s opinion, to not be a risk to ANY player. And that is exactly what happened in Dice-K’s case.

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